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Kristy, there is no "legend" involved here! The Brandt family were quite obviously what were known as BALTIC GERMANS, whose presence in what are today Estonia and Latvia goes back to the late 1100s! So by the time Johann Brandt was born around 1720, the Brandt family had already been in Estonia for about 500 years!
Although the Baltic Germans never comprised more than about 10% of the population in what are today Estonia and Latvia, they formed the wealthy educated land-owning and merchant classes in that region for 700 years. The Estonians and the Latvians, on the other hand, were simply peasants. That began to change only in the 1800s, which saw the rise of an Estonian and Latvian middle class, accompanied by a rise in Estonian and Latvian nationalism.
In late 1939, the Baltic Germans were resettled in Germany. So the year 1939 marked the end of what had been a 700-year German presence in what are today Estonia and Latvia.
It was because of the presence of the Baltic Germans that all the cities, towns, and villages in what are today Estonia and Latvia had both German and Estonian or Latvian names:
The capital of today's Estonia is called TALLINN in Estonian, REVAL in German.
The city called HAAPSALU in Estonian, HAPSAL in German, was the major city in the District (in German: Kreis) called LÄÄNE in Estonian, WIEK or WIECK in German, which is where the village called in Estonian LÄÄNE-NIGULA, in German POENAL, was located.
Here is the link to an article that will give you some solid background information:
http://www.einst.ee/factsheets/factsheets_uus_kuju/baltic_germans.htm
I hope, Kristy, that this has been of some help to you. Just out of curiosity: Whatever gave you the idea that there was some "legend" involved here?!!!
Robert
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